Night hunting is a very popular sport around the world. In the sport of nighttime predator and invasive feral and pest species hunting (e.g., coyote, fox, jackal, feral hog, wild boar, leopard, rat, bobcat, etc.), a very common technique is to use spotlights to shine on open or baited areas (“scanning”) while playing recordings of distressed indigenous game animals, such as rabbits or deer (in the case or predatory animals). When light shines into the eye of an animal having a tapetum lucidum, the pupil appears to glow brightly (referred to as “eyeshine”). A hand-held flashlight is sufficient to produce eyeshine that is highly visible to humans at distances of several hundred yards. As such, spotlighting is used by naturalists and hunters to search for animals at night.
When the responding predator arrives in the area, the shined light causes the animal's eyes to reflect brilliantly, alerting the hunter or naturalist as to the animal's arrival on scene. The scanning light color used has always been a topic of fierce debate among night hunters, with the prevailing school of thought accepting the premise that colored lights (as opposed to white lights) reduce the potential of spooking the animal or overwhelming the animal's eyes with bright, high-intense light, and causing the targeted species to shy from the light.
However, not all animals have tapetum lucidum. For example, wild boar and feral hogs are animals frequently hunted at night, but that lack the tapetum lucidum. Because of this, a light is needed that illuminates the actual body of the wild boar or feral hog so the hunter can detect the animal and positively identify it. Green light is most often used because of its minimal effect on hogs (does not spook them) and because the human eye sees better detail at distance under green colored light as opposed to red (another common color used in hunting). The three most common techniques of targeting wild boar and feral hogs at night are: 1) hunting at night over baited areas with corn and/or feeders with visible light; or, 2) shining visible light on pastures that wild boar and feral hogs are known to frequent while feeding or rooting; or, 3) employing a night vision device with an attached light mechanism emitting invisible or nearly invisible Infrared (IR) light in the 810-940 nanometers range and scanning for targeted animals.
Until fairly recently (last 5-7 years), most night hunting lights were typically handheld utility spotlights incorporating a vertical handle grip and white bulb/element with a red or green plastic filter over the reflector housing to change the white light to a red or green color. A significant disadvantage is the large bulky nature of the typical spotlight design and the need to use a plastic colored filter over a white light, which reduces the light output by up to 70 percent—significantly reducing the effective range. Another disadvantage is that most are not mountable on a scope or optic due to their typically large size, vertical handle grip, and heavy battery packs.
More recently, smaller, more powerful handheld flashlights with either a single white or a single colored light-emitting diode (“LED”) have become popular for night hunting. However, most hunters prefer to use more than one color (e.g., red and green) for targeting different animals. Because the typical handheld light only has a single LED, a user must carry more than one light, which is burdensome. Attempts have been made to solve this problem, such as by having interchangeable LEDs on a light. However, this not only takes time and is very inconvenient, but it requires the user to select and install the LED prior to arriving on the hunting stand location or the beginning of the playing of distress animal recordings. Because multiple terrain habitat types, expected shooting distances, and different targeted species can be encountered (and/or target species changed) in a single night of hunting, multiple changes in LED color are warranted, but are inconvenient and time consuming. Further, the LEDs can easily become lost while attempting to change in darkness. Other designs have included more than one LED on the circuit board. However, because the LEDs are in a physically distinct position, the beam position in relation to the centerline of the flashlight changes with the activation of each individual LED on the circuit board. This makes it incredibly difficult to use in conjunction with a firearm-mounted light—with each change in color, the light position must be manually adjusted (e.g., windage/elevation adjustment knobs) to match the scope field of view and ensure the light beam is centered in the scope cross hairs. The light beam is also not centered in the spherical or Fresnel lens, which reduces the overall brightness and range of the light. As such, there is a need for a spotlight that can have more than one color of light beam which is quickly and effortlessly selectable, that maintains the light beam of each color in the same exact centered location in relation to the flashlight centerline, and that is lightweight and easily mountable on a firearm.
Even more recently, digital devices designed and optimized for night hunting with IR lights have become more common place (e.g., GEN 3+ Night Vision). The IR lights are utilized and configured with various IR emitters (typically in the 810-940 nanometer range). These IR emitters produce light in a light spectrum, which, depending upon the nanometer range, is nearly, to completely, invisible unless using it with a night vision device. When used with a passive night vision device, the IR LED drastically extends the detection and targeting range of the device as compared to use without supplemental IR lighting. For example, 810 nm is visible to the naked eye, whereas 940 nm is completely un-detectable to the naked eye. The benefit to the 810 nm LED, when used in combination with a night vision device, is extended range, as compared to using the invisible 940 nm LED which is much reduced in range. However, the benefit of the 940 nm is complete elimination of any visible light output, which could be detected by the targeted species. As with the visible light LED limitations previously discussed, the IR LED light as currently available possesses virtually identical limitations and shortfalls.
Therefore, the current disclosure seeks to solve the above-mentioned problems, as well as others.